Where to find traditionally made Caesar salad?

Once upon a time you could get a REAL Ceaser salad… Now everywhere does the same thing mixes in some jar’ed Kraft “Ceaser” dressing and calls it a day. Is there anywhere in the cap region that still does it the ol’ fashion way with REAL ingredients? Doesn’t even have to be made table side, Just with real egg, cheese, etc not out of a jar. it seems thats all Anyone serves anymore.

Ralph’s Tavern on Central in Colonie. I took a friend there for lunch and she has been dreaming of their Caesar ever since! I am assuming you want romaine, hardboiled eggs, shredded parm and homemade dressing, no anchovies.

There’s a difference in terminology here: original vs. traditional. Years ago, I read an interview of the daughter of the Caesar salad. She insisted that the original did NOT contain anchovies. They have become traditional in a Caesar however, and if it were my restaurant I’d likely include both options on my menu, as most diners ordering one would expect the salad to be served “with”.

I’m not sure why people are saying this. The traditional way did not include anchovies. A REAL Caesar salad- by the traditional sense- contains no anchovies whatsoever. The flavor came from Worcestershire sauce.

This is a confusing question. While you mention that you aren’t looking for a table-side Caesar, I’m not sure if you are just looking for a restaurant with homemade dressing, or are you in search of a place that makes each salad (dressing included) to order, as an authentic Caesar salad is made. Most places listed above certainly fulfill the homemade dressing aspect, but those dressings are made in quantities to last for up to two days, not to order. Because they are made to last, they won’t have quite the delicate quality that a to order dressing would.
Either way, kudos for saying no to jarred dressings. Blech.

Not many places do table side service Fondly remember the Capehouse in Troy, which adhered faithfully to the original, even down to using carefully coddled egg, and “customized” the prep if you had preferences for additional garlic or anchovies, etc. Haven’t found a place that does it as well or as consistently., but the Scrimshaw does a decent job of it.

Why not do it yourself. Classic Caesar Salad (for two)needs a very large seasoned wooden bowl, into which two cloves of garlic are crushed into a wet coating (chopping them with a fork and then pulverizing them with the back of a large spoon ). Next, using the same tools and technique, turn four strips of anchovies into a wet coating in the bowl. Step three, add coddled egg yolk, 1/8 tsp. dry mustard, juice of 1/2 lemon (sans seeds), fresh ground pepper, tablespoon of red wine vinegar, and then take two inverted turns around the bowl with a bottle of Worchester Sauce. Next, using the spoon and fork held together (fork inside the spoon) beat the mixture while slowly drizzling in olive oil, until the dressing thickens into a loose mayonnaise consistency. Final step is to add Romaine lettuce (cut or torn into fork friendly pieces), good quality croutons (I make my own), grated Parmesan cheese, then toss with the dressing until fully mixed, then plate, add more fresh pepper, and enjoy. If the restaurant isn’t making it that way at the table, find another restaurant.

Truth- Amen on fresh croutons! YUM! I even make them fresh to top campbells tomato soup when stuck in during a snowstorm and fresh vitals are not easily obtained! I always have a few cans of that soup and I certainly always have crusty Italian bread (i.e. Perreca’s) in the freezer to make croutons with!! When I have a dinner party I make them buttery fresh and they usually garner more comments than the rest of the meal!

CrazyFoodCrazy – Can’t agree with you on canned tomato soup. I love tomatoes in all their forms EXCEPT tomato soup and Ketchup. In my sixty + years, I have never purchased, or used either. When it comes to croutons, however, I am a purist who not only makes them from good quality bread, but also bakes the bread (sans any machine) the old fashioned way. My honey wheat bread makes the best croutons, and I mostly use them (hot) when I make a chicken ranch dressing (I do buy that) salad.

My caesar dressing hasn’t changed since I learned to make it from James Beard recipe in the early 80’s at Harvest in Cambridge, and it was enjoyed immensly by the late great Julia Child.
Coddled egg, garlic, lemon, anchovy, Pecorino, splash of tabasco and black pepper–no vinegar. It is my fave!

I don’t use vinegar either. Nor Worcestershire. Had so much fun reading this set of commnets, I made Ceasar dressing last night. Raw eggs. Anchovies. Made it with lime juice instead of lemon because I didn’t have a lemon. Tasted great. Used an immersion blender. Uh-oh, is that allowed?

Indeed, if I had MY way – – places such as private membership clubs would be shut down for violation of the Civil Rights Laws and their members audited, along with their boards – who should be tried for discrimination and hate crimes. This won’t end until we level the playing field. Maybe we should open the kitchens to minorities and the homeless?

I never joke about social inequality and the injustice of a society that allows there to be private clubs populated by the greedy, when a third of all children go to bed hungry in America. Places like the Fort Orange need to be shut down and seized by officials to make room for those with real needs. If you believe that there is room for such injustice then you might fare better in a hell like Texas or some other backwater republic. I stand with TJ on this matter.

Imbalance is not injustice….Yhere will always be inequalities…often deserved…dont graduate high school … you do not deserve what a college graduate makes…
Sorry TJ and Education (or lack thereof) … you are too stupid to actually get it….

I want to chime in an “Amen” for the Caesar at the Arlington House. Thanks for that reminder. It IS incredible! Reminds me of what I got at Nicole’s years ago. They are a bit out of the way and I forget to go there being from the Western side of the Capital District when I should be making that trip more often!

Justin’s on Lark St in Albany makes a fabulous Ceasar Salad. Excellent home made tradional dressing and an option to have the salad topped with anchovies. Most places don’t even have anchovies if you want them which tells me right off the bat that they are not making their own dressing.

Walk across the street to DeJOhn’s. I think it is the best in Albany and maybe the best I ever had. Everytime I order a ceaser I ask if it is homemade, and there aren’t that many places that make it anymoe.

One can also purchase anchovy paste. Anchovy adds the correct umami boost. And yes, there is no question that the original Caesar Salad includes ground anchovies. Anyone remember Nicole’s in Albany down on Broadway (I think) where they made it wooden bowl tableside. This video features a former server there (Chuck Cinelli) making this salad in his Nashville restaurant. He explains and shows how the anchovies are mashed. This is Nicole’s recipe.

I have great memories of working at Nicole’s, she was a great lady and I learned a lot from her. I’m a Rotterdam native with my own restaurants in Nashville,TN. I meet New Yorkers everyday and its an honor and a pleasure for me to share our Italian culinary passion with the locals here. Thank you for posting my how to video, I hope you find it helpful.

Although I didn’t know that Caesar Salad was a component of the class wars (some chaps/ladies will politicize anything)even though I knew from college that “tsar” was Russian for “Caesar.” hahaha I agree that this is a great thread! Thanks, Steve!
ps-speaking of Russian, we need to find out what is REALLY in authentic “Russian” dressing as this is also debated by my family at certain times about the table.

I am not sure what is ‘verboten” but some of the above postings about the rich and underserved and all that are just odd on a forum about salad. It shows that some people spew venom and demagogue things like country clubs (1% yaddayadda) with a vengeance instead of speaking about food. I guess there are other places on the Time Union website to do that. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would see the day when foodists want to AUDIT and arrest people for being in a club. But this is Kook York so I guess we should expect that now. Nonetheless render onto CAESAR!

For traditional salad you may add items but the method should be traditional. The salad was made in a large wooden bowl with the lettuce leaves in bowl first. Toss with oil then salt and pepper, lemon, worcestshire toss and then add coddled egg toss to even coat leaves. Then the cheese and finally garlic croutons.

I think you can modify this and add anchovies, mustard or whatever else but start with the traditional salad.